For acclaimed landscape artist Lily Kwong, orchids are part of her family tradition.

Kwong is a guest designer for The Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden, which is back again for its 20th year.

What You Need To Know

  • The 20th Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden runs from Feb. 18 through April 23

  • This year's guest designer is landscape artist Lily Kwong

  • There are thousands of orchids on display as part of the show

  • Orchids are found on every continent except Antarctica

"The Orchid Show: Natural Heritage" is inspired by paintings of Chinese mountains passed down through her family from Shanghai.

"My deep prayer for this installation is that it inspires people to look at their own heritage and dig into their own ancestral knowledge for connections to the plant world," Kwong said.

Kwong used a wide array of orchids, both popular and rare, to put together the show.

There are a lot of orchids to choose from, after all. Orchids can be found on every continent except Antarctica and they are among the most diverse family of flowering plants.

There are around 30,000 natural species of orchids, and more than 100,000 man-made hybrids.

"Despite our association with them being this tropical group of plants, there are orchids native to New York City. Even getting up towards Alaska, there are orchids that can be found in the wild," Marc Hachadourian, the director of glasshouse horticulture and senior curator of orchids at the New York Botanical Garden, said.

Hachadourian has been involved with all 20 of the orchid shows.

Participating in the show is a homecoming of sorts for Kwong, who participated in the New York Botanical Garden's landscape design program in 2017.

"It was through these programs and the homework and the practice work that I really kind of found my own style and my own way of expressing and using plant life as an artistic medium," Kwong said.

The colorful and inspiring results are all at the conservatory, as the garden prepares to welcome spring.

"We have orchid evenings as part of the exhibit. The gardens themselves are beginning to come to life," Jennifer Bernstein, president and CEO of the garden, said.

"The Orchid Show: Natural Heritage" runs through April 23.